The Roger and Phyllis Dancz Center for New Music

The Dancz Center for New Music is the home of the Music Composition area at the University of Georgia Hugh Hodgson School of Music in Athens, Georgia. The Dancz Center facilities feature a modular black box theater and three electronic music studios, all interconnected via a network of video and audio feeds to form a robust space for the creation, performance, recording, and dissemination of 21st century music and multimedia artworks. Dancz Hall is an extensively equipped multimedia performance room. With flexible seating and computer controlled dramatic lighting capabilities, Dancz Hall provides composers, performers, and audiences with a unique atmosphere conducive to contemporary music, experimental music drama, student composer recitals, guest artists, electroacoustic music, and interactive performance. Dancz Hall is reserved exclusively for performances, rehearsals, and performances that focus on 21st century literature. DIRECTIONS TO THE DANCZ CENTER

Melinda Wagner Residency: November 2016

The Hugh Hodgson School of Music welcomes composer Melinda Wagner for a week of performances, presentations, and composition master-classes the week of November 14th through 18th.

Melinda Wagner achieved widespread attention when her colorful Concerto for Flute, Strings, and Percussion was awarded the 1999 Pulitzer Prize in Music. Since then, major compositions have included her Concerto for Trombone and Orchestra, for Joseph Alessi and the New York Philharmonic, and a piano concerto, Extremity of Sky, commissioned by the Chicago Symphony for Emanuel Ax. She teaches composition at Juilliard. In the composerʼs words:

“Music offers composers an immeasurably rich and generous sonic landscape in which to explore the ʻlife storyʼ of each musical idea—its dramas, intrigues, joys and sorrows—a life. I strive to find various and persuasive ways of moving through the resulting temporal narrative, and to traverse a wide spectrum of expression and color on the way.”

This residency was made possible through the support of the Willson Center for Humanities and Arts at the University of Georgia.

Music Composition at UGA

The Hugh Hodgson School of Music’s composition and theory area features internationally recognized faculty, attracting talented young composers and theorists from the United States and abroad.

Composition and theory students at the Hodgson School enjoy countless opportunities to present their work, including frequent Student Composers Association recitals and chamber music performances, and research symposia. Additionally, students have the opportunity to participate in and collaborate with the Hodgson School's numerous small chamber ensembles, orchestras, bands, and choirs.

For more information on composition and theory academic programs, click here.